I too am impressed with the aesthetic beauty of this product, and the LCD screen is definitely part of that! However, it's not really a crucial thing to have in a product, that screen along with the VU Meters, it's a little gimmicky, pandering to the geeky side (which is somewhat appealing to me, although gimmicky rather than necessary). Of course it measures well, so no need to vote it down for that, although thinking about it the headphone output is low but of good quality. I'm sure there are cheaper and more capable DAC/headphone amp combo units but without the same type of aesthetic as this device, and I didn't give it top marks in voting because of this fact. I think I would have preferred for them to have spent the budget on good quality built in parametric DSP rather than the pure aesthetic combined with unique LCD screen.